In the Wreckage: (M/M Sci-Fi Military Romance) (Metahuman Files Book 1)

by Hailey Turner

  Maybe this time things would be different. Maybe this time, the CIA would bow to political pressure and go forward with a telepathic scan.

  Kyle wasn’t going to hold his breath.

  Donovan and Madison commed in about thirty minutes later. Kyle set aside the tablet as he and Alexei got to their feet and joined the others gathering around the couch Katie had claimed. The multitude of holographic displays hovering in the air above the coffee table were re-sorted in seconds. Katie tossed the main one at the millimeter-thin flatscreen on the wall.

  “We’ve got eyes on you,” Katie said.

  The bisected feed on the display came from the sunglasses that doubled as cameras both Donovan and Madison wore. The feed from the apartment skyscraper’s security camera showed up on one of the other holographic displays. Kyle watched as Madison and Donovan approached the entrance, barely even slowing their stride before the doors slid open, courtesy of Katie’s hack. It took a minute or so for them to make it up to the twenty-ninth floor where Garza’s tiny, one-bedroom apartment was located. Katie opened that door for them as well.

  The feed from the cameras bobbed a bit with every step the pair took, the view moving with their heads. Both of them scanned what they could see of the apartment before moving inside, their handguns held out in front of them in two-handed grips. A holopic display lay on the floor, its screen shattered into tiny pieces, its frame bent, as if someone had stepped on it. Its spot on the wall was empty, with only the tiny magnetic anchoring points showing where it once resided. The small, two-seater circular dining table was tipped on its side, the chairs knocked over. The rest of the living room remained untouched. Whatever had happened in the apartment, it ended abruptly once past the kitchen.

  “No sign of blood so far,” Madison reported, her voice coming through the tablet’s speaker and their embedded comms. Her camera feed swung around as she cased and cleared the living room while Donovan cleared the kitchen.

  “Try the bedroom,” Jamie said.

  The camera feeds walked their audience into the small bedroom. It showed no damage other than scattered dirty clothes on the floor and a hastily made bed. The bathroom, however, was a different story. The space was barely big enough for one person to fit inside. It had no tub, only a standup shower currently occupied by Garza’s broken, bloated body.

  Donovan knelt down, his gloved hand coming into view as he pushed aside some the body’s lank hair to get a better view of the blackened ligature marks surrounding her throat. Her half open, sightless eyes were blood red from subconjunctival hemorrhaging. Her swollen tongue protruded between her lips, blood having left dried rivulets over her waxy skin.

  “Shit,” Trevor said softly.

  “She’s been dead at least a couple of days judging by the smell and the state the body is in, which means it’s definitely Everly walking around headquarters,” Donovan said.

  Jamie’s expression was hard, closed off, even as his voice came out even. “Get out of there and head back to base. We’ll meet up with you on the road. Katie?”

  “Video feed copied to my external solid state drive,” she replied.

  “Close it down. We’re leaving.”

  It took mere minutes for everyone to shut down their workstations and grab their gear. The six of them headed for the elevator, with Katie securing the condo behind them. No one spoke on the way down. They wordlessly separated into two groups for the drive back to MDF headquarters once they made it to the garage. Kyle and Jamie followed Katie to her Maserati, but Jamie was the one who got behind the wheel. Katie claimed the front passenger seat, so Kyle climbed in the back and buckled up.

  “What’s the plan?” Kyle asked.

  “We report in with our findings, then we find Everly and take her down,” Jamie said as he started the engine.

  “Should we call it in?” Katie asked.

  Jamie shook his head. “We don’t know if she has access to communications. See if the director will accept a mental link. Tell him to double up security in Building Two and lock down the labs.”

  Katie nodded and closed her eyes, tilting her head back. She stayed still, one hand curled over the strap of her seatbelt, the other pressed to the side of her head. It was minutes before she relaxed.

  “The director knows. He’s having Ceres keep Everly under surveillance until we get there and will lockdown the lab where the possible vaccine is being kept. He’s initiating a base-wide security lockdown the second we cross into the perimeter.” She hesitated before continuing with “Your father is still on base. The director said to tell you he will be looked after.”

  Kyle’s gaze snapped to Jamie’s profile, but Jamie didn’t let any hint of what he was feeling come through. Instead, Jamie pressed down on the gas, not even looking at the GPS as he took a sharp right at the next light. He obviously knew the quickest route back. Kyle settled in for the ride, fingers itching for his sniper rifle and crosshairs to fill his vision.

  16

  Visualize World Peace

  The second their small convoy of cars crossed the security checkpoint, Deputy Director Stirling’s voice came over their encrypted comms channel.

  “We have a problem,” she said calmly while an alarm klaxon shrieked on her side of the uplink. “Reroute over the tarmac and come in through the ready rooms. We need Alpha Team geared up.”

  “Copy that,” Jamie said for all of them as he sped up. “We need a sitrep.”

  “Building Two was locked down first the moment you informed Nazari of the threat, but Everly and her people are overriding security measures in a direct assault on the labs and have taken hostages. We can’t pin them down without risking our own people.”

  “How did she get them inside?” Jamie wanted to know as he steered the Maserati over asphalt in a loop around the cluster of buildings that made up MDF headquarters.

  “We believe she’s impersonated key personnel over the past few days and authorized incoming troop transport by using false identification and possibly a telepath. We’ll look into it further after we’ve dealt with the bitch. Right now, the most pressing problem is at least one of those she brought in is a metahuman with a null power.”

  Jamie shared a grim look with Katie. “Do you got eyes on that metahuman?”

  “Negative.”

  “Clear Ovechkina for a full base scan, ma’am. We need to find that metahuman.”

  “Authorization has been signed off already. Ovechkina is cleared to use her telepathy as she sees fit to find that metahuman.”

  “What’s the range of this metahuman’s nullification power?” Katie asked.

  “Seems to be about one hundred meters.”

  Katie frowned. “I’ll need to stay outside that.”

  “We want you up on the command levels. If Ceres fails for whatever reason, we can initiate a lockdown on the secondary system,” Stirling said.

  Katie seemed unhappy about that but didn’t argue the order. “Understood, ma’am.”

  “You’ll be out of reach and safe up there,” Jamie said in a low voice off comms as he drifted hard around a corner, the airfield coming into view. The way he gripped the steering wheel revealed he didn’t quite believe those words, not in the face of the current breach. Jamie didn’t even bother trying to hide that physical tell. “We need your telepathy to guide us.”

  “Safe is not where I want to be,” Katie muttered.

  “I’ve got his six,” Kyle told her from the backseat.

  Katie craned her neck around to pin him with a look that Jamie, in all the years he’d known her and had her by his side, couldn’t read. Finally, she nodded, a satisfied glint in her eyes.

  “He’s a handful,” she warned.

  “Oh, I know.”

  Jamie rolled his eyes. “Trust you to find the only other NCO as hardheaded as you, Katie.”

  She smiled sweetly at him, showing teeth. “It’s always been my job to keep you in check, sir. Now I have help.”

  “Save me from mouthy NCOs,�
�� Jamie said, though the tight smile he gave her showed even he didn’t believe his own words.

  It was a well-known fact that NCOs did all the work while the officers took the glory. An officer had to be completely out of his mind to discount any advice an NCO dished out. Jamie knew better than to do that. He’d learned better years ago.

  The sunlight dimmed a little and Jamie glanced up at the sky, seeing it shimmer. Someone had activated the base’s perimeter shield, effectively locking everyone inside. Base personnel were running to their positions on the tarmac around them as Jamie braked to a hard halt, Katie’s Maserati responding beautifully. The three clambered out of the vehicle, the rest of the team only seconds behind them. They double-timed it to their assigned ready room, scrambling for their individual berths, already undressing. In the requisite ninety seconds, every member of Alpha Team had geared up in their tactical body armor with weapons in hand.

  Jamie pulled up a schematic of the base on the ready room’s computer before initiating an uplink with command. “Is the line secure?”

  “Confirming line security,” Ceres said. Code scrolled over the holoscreen for a few seconds before reverting back to the array of pinned command windows. “Security confirmed.”

  “Command, this is Apollo. Alpha Team is inside. We’re sending Viper your way. Make a hole for her.”

  “Apollo, this is command. Confirming Viper’s transfer. We have her route mapped and in view, ready to guide her,” the crisp voice of a female agent said.

  Jamie looked at Katie and nodded firmly at her. “Go.”

  Katie saluted the team silently with two fingers before exiting the ready room, biolocked AKR-75 assault rifle braced against her shoulder. Jamie hated sending her out alone, but he needed her up high, in overwatch, to give them literal peace of mind.

  “Don’t fight her this time,” Jamie said to Kyle and Alexei.

  “We won’t,” Kyle answered for them both.

  Jamie primed his AKR-75 assault rifle and headed for the door. “Command, Alpha Team is Oscar Mike.”

  “Good luck and happy hunting,” Nazari said.

  “We’re definitely within the nullification field right now,” Madison said as the team fell into formation behind their captain. “I can’t charge a spark.”

  “We’ll work around it,” Jamie said.

  Jamie took point, leading them out of the ready room area and toward the bank of elevators in the center of the building. MDF personnel who weren’t active field agents or integral to the security of the base were sheltering in place to stay out of the way. Alpha Team met and cleared the internal checkpoints agents and soldiers had set up throughout the main building. When they made it to the elevators, Jamie bypassed the general public ones and the restricted ones for command, heading instead for the maintenance elevator that had access to all the sublevels on base.

  “Ceres, take us down to Sublevel 5,” Jamie said.

  The maintenance elevator doors slid open and the team crowded inside the larger car. The descent was smooth and swift. Down below, the doors slid open on a pair of guards who had been informed of their arrival by command, but that didn’t stop them from keeping their weapons trained on the elevator.

  They’re in the clear and I’m in position. I’ve got eyes on your father, Apollo. He’s watching the feed command has up on Alpha Team in a private office adjacent to the war room.

  Katie’s telepathic voice echoed in Jamie’s head from her position on Level 36 in the main building. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Alexei wince. Telepathy definitely took some getting used to.

  Wonderful, Jamie replied.

  Sublevel 5 contained the guts of the power system that kept the MDF headquarters up and running. Solar power was routed down to the generators that filled much of the area Alpha Team was crossing through. Two subterranean tunnels branched away to two smaller generators that powered Medical and Building Two alike. Jamie led Alpha Team down the maintenance tunnel that would take them to Building Two, effectively keeping their location a secret from Everly and her people.

  “What’s the plan?” Donovan asked.

  “We find a way past their perimeter. As soon as Viper has pinpointed the metahuman with the null power, we take them out,” Jamie said.

  Everly brought a telepath as well, possibly a few more metahumans. Telepath is the same one from the mission in Atlanta. Not quite as strong as I am, but he is fucking distracting, Katie told them.

  “Might be how she managed to keep people from seeing what was going down,” Trevor said.

  “Probably,” Donovan grunted as they ran single file around steel coils and cage-like fencing. “We’re going to need a solid ID so we know who to shoot.”

  “Null power isn’t affecting Everly’s metahumans, which means it can be targeted. Her metahumans have to be in a bubble where they can use their powers if her telepath is still active,” Jamie said. “Viper?”

  Sending you IDs now. We lost visual of the floors they’re temporarily in control of, but command managed to pull these earlier.

  An image taken from MDF security feeds flashed over their HUDs. A middle-aged white man carrying an assault rifle and wearing mismatched old-style camo gear no actual member of the military would wear stood in front of hostages sitting against a work room wall. Most of them looked to be wearing lab coats and all of them seemed frightened in the image.

  The first image switched to a second, this time revealing a thin young man holed up in an office who seemed to be guarded by a pair of mercenaries wearing MDF uniforms.

  First guy is the metahuman with the null power. Second is the bastard who thinks he’s better than me.

  “What about Everly?” Kyle asked.

  The image flickered, replaced by a third, this one a match for the picture in the CIA personnel file of one Cora Everly.

  “Same face,” Alexei said. “Suka. Ya eyo ub’yu.”

  “Nyet, zatknis’ i bigi. Ne spor’ so mnoi. Ya strelyayu,” Kyle snapped.

  Whoever has the shot will take the shot, Katie said firmly.

  That answered the question of what Kyle and Alexei were arguing about.

  “Plan?” Annabelle asked from her position near the rear of the line.

  “We’re not in a free-fire zone, so watch your shooting,” Jamie said. “How’s our position around the hostiles?”

  “Tight,” Director Nazari said over the line. “We’re attempting to claw back visuals right now. Everly hasn’t managed to break through the security measures surrounding the lab where Dr. Patel’s possible vaccine is being stored. Ceres is keeping her out, but Everly and her people have control of Levels 5 through 7. They got a hacker, a good one, who managed to isolate Ceres out of that area.”

  “And Dr. Patel?”

  “Currently a hostage.”

  Jamie grunted, still weaving through the maze that made up Sublevel 5, only now they were beneath Building Two. “How do the elevator shafts look?”

  They’d reached Building Two’s maintenance elevator by the time the director came back on the line. “Maintenance car is locked on Level 10 by Everly’s group. Security feed is in the cars only, not the shafts, but I’d be quick if I were you.”

  Jamie secured his weapon. “All right boys and girls. We’re going for a climb.”

  Jamie didn’t have his enhanced strength, but between himself and Donovan, they pried open the elevator doors, exposing the dark shaft. The tactical goggles HUD automatically switched into night vision mode, providing them clear sight. The sublevels extended two more floors down and the labs were far above them. The elevators ran on a maglev system, which meant they had a clear space to maneuver, no old school cables to deal with.

  Everyone primed the mag-lines embedded in their gloves and Jamie was the first to swing into the empty space of the elevator shaft. His gloves magnetized to the wall as he braced his boots against the interior metal paneling. Looking up, he could see thin lines of light that showed up brighter on the HUD, denoting the do
ors to each floor level.

  “We need to take out the metahuman with the null power,” Jamie said quietly as he started to climb. “Location?”

  “Last known location was Level 6,” Nazari replied.

  “Viper, can you guide me to him if I get between Levels 6 and 7 in the crawl space?” Kyle asked.

  Jamie spared a glance downward, seeing that Kyle had taken the position Katie normally would hold and was climbing up right behind him.

  I can, Katie affirmed.

  “Do it,” Jamie ordered. He kept climbing, the rest of Alpha Team following in his wake. “We’ll come out on Level 6 and make our way to the labs. We’ll see if we can’t make it to Everly’s position before the nullification ends.”

  “Is that a challenge?” Kyle asked.

  “One hundred dollars on Kyle,” Madison said quickly.

  “Oh, fuck that. Two hundred on Jamie,” Donovan replied.

  The rest of Alpha Team quietly made their bets as they navigated the elevator shaft at a quick pace upward. Jamie could feel the strain in his shoulders and arm muscles as he climbed, an ache he was surprised to feel come on quickly. After three years of living with his enhanced strength and durability, its absence was noticeable.

  Should probably have everyone train with our powers dampened, Jamie absently noted for later.

  They’d lived most of their lives as humans, not metahumans. Limitations were important and Jamie didn’t want them to forget that.

  When they closed on Level 5, Alpha Team went comms silent, with Katie providing a group-wide telepathic link for communication. Kyle overtook Jamie on the last two meters, silently measuring out where the two floors met and where a small crawl space existed. He pulled a multi-use tool out of his belt pouch, switching on the laser cutter. Jamie braced himself against the wall next to the elevator door on Level 6, head tilted back as he watched Kyle use one hand to cut a hole into the metal plating. Kyle left the last inch whole before pocketing the multi-use tool. Carefully, he magnetized his hand to the cut out piece of metal and slowly pushed it inward and out of the way. When it was clear of the hole he’d made, Kyle flashed Jamie a thumbs up before crawling through the hole, not making a sound as he went.